# Conditions Met Produces Outcomes I wanted to find out why sometimes it seems like I logically know what to do and what will be good for me to do but I just can't seem to do it. I also wanted to find out why it's so difficult for me sometimes to escape certain loops or processes of me doing the thing I know I shouldn't be doing. Upon reflection I also found that there are certain strategies that I, and hopefully you, can use to do more of the processes we logically want to do. > For me the challenges came and still do come in many shapes and sizes but the most common ones fall under one category # Bread and Circus >If I had to guess this would be the most relatable example in any form. The phrase "bread and circus" can have a number of unique angles attributed to it however I will stick with, what I think is, the modern day meaning. This meaning can be derived from the most common activities and vices that, especially western, humans partake in: pornography, gambling, watching sports, consuming social media, overeating, politics, listening to podcasts, smoking, sexuality, drinking alcohol, excessive risk taking and many others. > >It would be too long to explore each activity and measure the good versus the bad along with associated reasoning therefore we must establish a framework. This framework will assist in measuring how much agency we truly have in situations and determine if we are the ones in control of the conditions that produce outcomes. > >I shall begin with an anecdote. During my 10,000+ hours of playing 'Counter Strike' with the goal of reaching the professional level, part of the process involved me watching professional games via livestream and even once I attended an event in person. At one point this so called passion turned into an unhealthy relationship between me and watching the matches, which consisted of what essentially was a parasocial relationship between me and the players and I also began to gamble. I felt it was worse than the average person in this situation as I, at the time, participated in many tournaments so I could feel what the players were feeling in moments of high adrenaline. Even after I quit playing, I frequently watched these games as it was an easy portal to both numb away my thinking and experience elevated levels of adrenaline or stress. > >I want to prove that this framework that we are going to build is agnostic to the activity however I will use examples to eliminate confusion. This is to create underlying principles of which we can agree or disagree with. First, I claim that there are 3 parts that make up a pipeline which results in a process. These 3 parts are: 1. **Before** the process 2. **During** the process 3. **Exiting/After** the process Secondly, I claim that identity has a profound impact at all steps of the pipeline. This impact can be felt through different aspects during this pipeline such as difficulty and intrinsic motivation. In addition to this claim, I will add that the amount of "cognitive energy" one has to use also impact this pipeline. Thirdly, I claim that actions and habits can be the result of the relationship one has with fear, time, money, and status at a bare minimum. Fourthly, I will attempt to prove that being consciously aware of certain parts of the process is irrelevant. For example, if you take actions consciously or not, the pipeline still occurs. However, if you wish to change the pipeline in which your life operates, you must be consciously aware of the pipeline. > To begin, let's start from the most raw unit of doing: Action. > An action is a raw input, in this state it is independent of other variables. Assuming you know how to read a specific word, reading a word is an action. > Reading a sentence and therefore reading a book is a process. It may be easy to conclude a process is a collection of actions but I would like to take it a step further and suggest and go with the definition that a process is ongoing conditions being met. > An outcome is, irrespective of its desired nature, the result of a process. In addition a process is only a process if it has an outcome. Many actions performed which do not together meet conditions to achieve an outcome are not a process. > There is also a desired outcome, what one wishes the result to be in any given scenario. Just because you have a desired outcome does not mean it will be the outcome following a process, think of it as a goal. > Conditions are before each step from actions to processes to outcomes which concludes this specific pipeline to: > **Conditions -> Actions -> Conditions -> Processes -> Conditions -> Outcomes** > Conditions are a common denominator before each step because based on the scenario and the individual, some criteria must be satisfied in order to proceed and it is unique to the individual. > So now we can overlap these 2 pipelines to show: > 1. **Before** the process = Conditions -> Actions > 2. **During** the process = Conditions -> Processes > 3. **Exiting/After** the process = Conditions -> Outcomes If you are interested in desired outcomes or goals, then you have to work backwards to see what conditions have to be met and what process must be carried out. If those do not produce the desired outcome then they were most likely wrong and you need to take a different approach. Let's now take the example of being someone who wants to read in order to gain knowledge and understanding. Many conditions must be met through this pipeline. 1. Initiation: You need to have a book that contains the knowledge you are seeking. There is also the battle of intrinsic motivation, which shows if you actually want to do the activity. The skill of being able to read and even read and understand new words. In my experience, the hardest condition is to sync my thought process with the actions I am doing. So now having satisfied the preconditions to actions and taking actions, we are a step closer to reading but our goal was to gain knowledge therefore we have a few extra conditions to meet to satisfy the process of reading for knowledge. 2. During: To some, a tranquil environment is essential to reading to ensure ones thought process is uninterrupted. This includes meeting the conditions of having an environment without distractions therefore one must take action to lets say turn their phone off. There is also a condition behind that which is: are they in the state to turn their phone off? Maybe their parents demand fast responses and it is unreasonable for them to go without contact for an hour. Nevertheless, there is also a precondition to action. In addition, once one is in the process and has satisfied all the conditions to read for knowledge the perspective shifts to maintaining the conditions to stay in the process. The conditions for initiation and maintaining a process can be very similar but the highest leverage conditions can be different. For example, attention and focus is one of the conditions to initiate reading but it then becomes the main condition for staying in the process. If you lose focus and attention, you halt the process. 3. After the process 1. Exiting One must be aware there are conditions that have to be met to exit a process. There are typically the inverse of the conditions to initiate and maintain a process, also these conditions can be met by others. E.g. someone walks into your room and starts to talk to you which eliminates attention given to the book and now is directed to the person. In addition, once a process is halted, it may be more of a challenge to get back into. *This is also known as context switching* 2. Outcomes By simply reading a book you can achieve an outcome of having read some text, but there are even more conditions to learn well from a book and gain knowledge. You can ask yourself questions, see how the book you are reading connects with other knowledge you have and you can also write good notes. These methods work better or worse for others so the underlying principle is to find out what conditions cause you to gain knowledge from reading in this instance. It is possible to have met all the conditions for reading and learning but if you do not have a book that contains the knowledge you seek, you will not find. Likewise, it is also possible to have a book with knowledge and carry out the process of reading but not having met **your** conditions for learning, you will not gain knowledge and fall into the trap of forgetting what you have just read. ## Pulling It All Back In "pornography, gambling, watching sports, consuming social media, overeating, politics, listening to podcasts, smoking, sexuality, drinking alcohol, excessive risk taking" This is the list of activities and vices I have outlined previously. So now we can dig deep at the following aspects I wish to produce claims from: 1. Outlining the pipeline (✅) 2. 1. Impact of identity on difficulty and intrinsic motivation 2. Impact of cognitive energy requirements 3. Actions and habits stemming from one's relationship with fear, time, money, and status. 4. 1. The pipeline still occurs regardless of consciousness 2. Change requires consciousness ### Identity and Cognitive Energy A lovely example used in the book Atomic Habits is the difference in identity between "I am not a smoker" and "I am trying to quit smoking". The difference in these two identities one perceives them self in is actually in the conditions and not the actions. If you truly aligned with not being a smoker, there is a lack of conditions to be met to carry out the actions or rather they are pushed to an extreme such as if someone had a gun pointed at their head. However, for the latter example the identity may have conditions, conscious or unconscious, that will make the process of smoking a cigarette easier. Then comes the aspect of intrinsic motivation which begs the question "does the person genuinely enjoy the process or find it interesting and why?". It will of course be much more difficult to quit smoking if one has an interest and passion within by for example finding it interesting to roll their own cigarette. Even if one has an intrinsic motivation towards something they are trying to change or quit, it is possible but only if you look at the conditions met. The conditions met that create thoughts which may initiate the actions, or the conditions that make it possible for the action to even occur. In the smoking example, one could focus on not buying cigarette related products at the store and analysing when the ideas to smoke come in, because it could be at specific moments whether it's feeling the emotions of joy or sadness. But intrinsic motivation could be an accelerating factor. If one has a strong interest then there will be less cognitive energy used when facing action. Unfortunately gaining intrinsic motivation is different for all as far as my life experience is concerned however I do recommend just trying things out as I have seen the more action I put into something the more I am interested in it. This could also be identity as play so it is hard to tell. I think it is also obvious to point out that an obstacle or rather a condition to be met that consistently shows up is how much cognitive energy is required to take action and carry out a process. If it feels draining or like a burden then it will be difficult to engage. One view on this is this feeling may be a result of other conditions being met or unmet. An example can be someone can know how to code but they find it draining to code a video game but they might be in a flow state when coding a website. So it could be that you need to find and analyse your strengths then work within that subdomain. ### Actions and Habits These claims I am making and have made throughout have been centred around friction. Let's explore the impact that the relationship one has with fear, time, money, and status has on the friction towards the pipeline. To an extent, all of these relationships are intangible and could be seen merely as a perception one has towards the world. This is the viewpoint I will take as these relationships are the result of the experiences one has gone through or predicts they will go through. These relationships to some people may be a lubricant for the pipeline but for some act as a complete blockage. It is because of these relationships that we see examples of people gambling their, sometimes not so, disposable income away and other times we see people that are so disciplined with every penny they spend. My role here is not to dissect how to adjust these relationships because it should follow the simple rule that we have already discussed: there must be conditions met. Therefore, there are clearly some number of conditions that are met that enable such behaviours. Some, bad, actors take advantage of this and we shall gain understanding about it in the "Agency" section below. ### Consciousness of the Pipeline For better or for worse, you may not be conscious of this pipeline occurring. Especially because a large portion of our behaviour is automatic, some people enjoy rambling about habits but then we circle back to habits being actions, processes, and outcomes that are automatic because X condition is met so we do Y. This is the same as reading because you do not usually consciously think about how to read, you simply read. I am trying to make it clear that for this pipeline to occur, you do not need to be conscious of at least most of the conditions or steps for the pipeline to occur. However, a big turning point occurs when you want to change a, typically unconsciously occurring, pipeline. In my opinion, the best example of this is in handwriting. For a person with illegible handwriting, they must rewire or rather rebuild their pipeline by being more consciously aware of every aspect. The same goes for a gambling addict or someone who consumes social media because the common denominator of a pipeline change is pain and or suffering. One has to suffer through learning a new path without the help of automatic unconscious behaviour. In my opinion, this is felt as suffering because of the exact lack of assistance from automatic behaviour and a person may even feel at times like part of them is lost. # Agency The [definition](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/agency) of agency is: the ability to take action or to choose what action to take I think an understanding of first, second, and even third order consequences is necessary to discuss our agency. To jump from one order to another we must ask "what does this new situation result in?" and not merely "what happens next?". Example: | Action | I turn on do not disturb on my phone. | | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | First order consequence | I am not able to be disturbed by any phone calls or texts. | | Second order consequence | I have reduced my distractions which promotes an environment in which I am more likely to sustain attention to reading for longer periods of time. | | Third order consequence | Knowledge is more likely to be acquired. | | Fourth order consequence | I am more likely to have have wiser insights and interesting conversations. | To understand how to have agency we must look at the reversal: how we lose agency. Based on everything we have talked about here, if I was attempting to perform some kind of manipulation on humans I would start with looking at what conditions do they face now to execute a pipeline and under what conditions would they execute a pipeline I want them to. Simply put: make it harder for them to do the stuff they want to do and make it easier to do the stuff I want them to do. The prime examples are in the very vices and activities I had previously listed. For the sake of the argument lets pick apart fast food and casinos. **Fast Food** I would like to now also introduce [conditioning](https://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/conditioning-intro). This mechanism works through repeated exposure to a situation where a person learns that certain factors lead to certain outcomes. Fast food has taken over many countries and you can see a chain just about anywhere you go from the smallest villages to the dense cities. Let's view the stakes at play. Either you have to do some shopping, prepare ingredients, cut them up and cook them or walk into a fast food restaurant and simply pay, scroll on your phone for that precious dopamine and collect your food in minutes. Ordering food is even more frictionless as the friction comes in the infinite scroll of salivating over tens to hundreds of different options. The appeal behind fast food is in the inconvenience it may save us from, the time it takes to cook and the expectations we are conditioned to hold as a result of previous not bad experiences. Fast food also works because it aims to eliminate our thinking of several of orders of consequences deep. After repeated exposure to advertisements we may ignore the downsides to our health as a result of consumption. This begs the questions, what form of agency do we have when presented with the same 3 chain fast food restaurants over and over again? What agency do we possess when bombarded nonstop with advertisements that condition our behaviour? In what world can we have a satisfactory amount of agency when the food we are eating from these restaurants are made in such a way to be addictive and unhealthy? I would like to argue that over time we are declining in agency as our options become more limited and the conditions that have to be met in order to eat that kind of food are becoming increasingly frictionless. **Casinos** I have never been inside a casino but I am familiar with online sports betting. I have also not been a fan of the recent developments of companies such as Polymarket in America. I would like to take the obvious stance in discussing the concept that conditions met result in outcomes: a society aiming to be good should not allow such behaviours to be legal. Everywhere you walk or even consume media online, there are also nonstop advertisements for gambling. It is also the most frictionless it has ever been. Are you 15 and want to gamble? All you have to do is turn on a VPN and sign up for a foreign gambling website and deposit via apple pay or crypto – this is the most friction one may encounter. Even if you are "of age", the greatest amount of friction you will experience is knowing if you have enough money in your account to deposit via apple pay. Even in the case of in person casinos, they want you to play because they just want to hijack your pipeline. They know most people seek "happiness" or some form of it and a slot machine may be just your method for that. They will invest in you like they know you are an AI company that's about to explode in popularity by providing free drinks and credits. ### Regaining Agency To swing the pendulum back the other way and regain our agency we must hold everyone accountable to it, no matter the scale. Bad actors will always aim to make you a sucker as long as you boost their P&L statements. There must be conversations at every scale from friendships to family to government to see how can we turn it back and make the conditions to take action on vices harder to meet. Moreover, we must take their approach and make the thing we want to do and know we should we doing have conditions that are easy for us to meet. Regardless, there will be pain, but we must accept pain for a desired outcome rather than letting people drown in exponential debt and hopelessness. It is not only our duty to look after ourselves, we must look after each brother and sister and be prepared to suffer alongside them.